I'm sure there's a range here but I'm interested in learning what it is...

Wholesalers/Macro-roasters (over 500,000lbs a year), what is or can anyone at least chime in on what Roasters are hired on for in terms of salaries/ hourly pay?

I'd like to know for "no experience Necessary" type of situations as well as "two years experience" types.

I'm curious because I'm not really sure what competitive pay is for Roasters in the Industrial sector and wonder if there's any consistency. We also are growing and want to be competitive. I also have no idea if I'm paid competitively. thanks.

So even with the 60+ views of this post, not a single person has been willing to share even a piece of information with me. So I'm asking again for help and just want to say that question is part of the package for us as professionals. In fact I recall even hearing once that the Guild was at least partially predicated by a couple of guys asking each other this same question. It is also something that we have a duty to ourselves to be conscious of in order to further the cause of the Guild. How do we legitimate Certifications and ongoing programs without ever being able to lend a ballpark figure of what one can expect to make when entering the trade giving some guidance in that respect as to what a career in coffee roasting looks like? We won't all work for ourselves or be promoted to Masters and Buyers, despite our ambitions.

A vast majority of us will, and do, load and unload green, roast, do maintenance, hopefully cup and profile, among many other tasks related to physical labor. That means we will, and do, spend ample time as "apprentices" and "journeymen" Roasters working in one place or another.

I don't want to hate on other companies and I love my company and trust folks are in it for the heart of doing more and better things across the board and taking the reigns of coffee away from global exploiters. That is what keeps me dedicated and fosters my loyalty. But we aren't in the non-profit sector. And I would just encourage us Roasters to be transparent with each other, discreetly or not, about the value of the Roaster in the chain of production and look what's there and if the floor is fair.

I also want to say that I know there are many different levels of roles and titles given to the people who roast coffee. I'm honestly JUST curious to find something that looks like a range for industrial, wholesale-type companies ranging from anywhere from a quarter million to however many millions of pounds a year...really ANY size place that actually has a Roasting Team or crew of more than two folks who don't double as owners or the buyer/QC/everything...

It's an innocent inquiry and I'd offer what I know to my fellow Roasters if asked, and in good faith that it would not be used in a negative way.

I think that this is a really interesting discussion, but can see where some people would be timid about this question, also it's hard to have a standard when we have such a wide variety company sizes represented in our membership. I think that if people do give you some of this info, that it will be pretty all over the place.

It is a very tough question to answer because of the many many variables. These variables include the size of the company, the profit margin for the company, the cost of living and economic conditions in the local area of the company, not to mention the duties of the particular Roaster.

I would imagine that people who would call themselves Roasters fall within the range of $25k to more than $100k per a year based on the afore mentioned variable and their experience. I realize this range is extremely large but so is the variety of job duties performed by people who call themselves Roasters.

Roast Magazine did a really nice piece a while back based on the results of a survey they conducted on many different questions related to the professional roaster, including pay scales. I think that contact someone at Roast Magazine you may be able to purchase that year's issues.

I acknowledge all these variables, but I'd also say that a certified Journeyman carpenter knows how much he's gonna make. And that's just one example and not meant to stir the pot in a bad way. I was also attempting to differentiate a bit and try to find if there are commonalities in where people start in certain sized companies. I read the Roast article and survey and found it to be all over the place. With no differentiation between folks roasting in there own shops and folks running three 5 baggers on swing shifts, I see how that's problematic.

That said, AND NOT TO CALL ANYONE OUT, I really don't expect folks from particular companies to divulge if they aren't comfortable, but some companies put out a lot of coffee. It makes for an industrial, skilled trade setting.

Similar, but certainly not equal are a WIDE range of companies around the country like Caribou, Allegro, Green Mountain, Dillanos, Boyds, Intelli, CBI, Stumptown, Counter Culture, Batdorf, the Roasterie and a host of others whose common thread is that they got multiple guys on the team that require training, get a certain amount of benefits, and likely either apprentice out of production, or are hired with Experience at previous places. And while the size of these places are extremely different, the constant I'm looking at are the experienced Roasters working in roasting plants, that train and run all this equipment, and I can't imagine a huge disparity in what folks are paid when working in these places unless or until they advance into senior positions, but again, that's not what I'm asking...

I'm asking if folks actually know what people get put on at, and can say so, not having to forge any explanations or name any names.

Just a sort of, "I know a place that starts new guys at 11/hour" or "the Head roasting position at this place was 55K" or "Roasting over at this one place paid 45K but you were expected to run four machines at once"

That's a whole other discussion thread if a bunch of folks say 8.50 and hour and the other half say 50K a year. But again, that's not this discussion, fun as that would be to have.

PS. I know little to nothing about the pay or anything about the companies I mentioned above and am not alluding to any massive discrepencies or trying to name any names, they were just names to suit my example of a certain scale of operation and team environment.

As a production assistant I was paid $12/hr. cash. I took over roasting and was offered $12/hr. with paid vacay day every 3mo. negotiated for and was paid $15.85/hr. with 1day vacay/3 mo. OT after 8hrs/day. I was approached by management shortly before leaving that company with the offer of 17/hr to supervise production staff as well as lead roasting duties. I asked for 20/hr. + all aforementioned benefits. I am no longer with company but am sure I would have received this raise. This all occurred in the span of one year.